Pay Attention!

by Ann Hibbard 

How’s your time in God’s Word right now?

Recently one of my girls came in to get her devotional stuff from my computer desk where she’d left it. About five to seven minutes later, she popped back in the school room, claiming to be done with her reading. I stared at her. I started to grill her, but then I stopped and told her to go back and read it again. I told her to think through each chapter until she could truly write down something she had gleaned from that portion of Scripture. Some lesson, or a question, or something.

Of course, then I felt the conviction. How much attention had I paid during my morning reading? What could I share?

Some days there’s almost no way to truly record the depths of what I sense the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart and mind through the Word. It’s just so wonderfully powerful and alive! Other days, thought, I feel as if I’m just going through the motions. I might as well just glance at it for five minutes, because I’m not really gleaning anything from it. There are good days and bad days for all of us. The problem comes when the bad days become the habit.

The author of Hebrews says it best, I think.

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. Hebrews 2:1

God’s Word has been given to us that we may grow and learn. But, if we don’t pay attention, it is so easy to drift away. Why? Because one of two things happen.

1. We don’t learn what it says in the first place. We are oblivious to the truth of Scripture, and when push comes to shove, we fall back on something other than the strength of Christ. Mainly because we don’t know the strength of Christ because we don’t know His Word.

2. We learn it, but we forget what we’ve learned. The reminders and the encouragement are not there in front of us. So, our minds are instead filled with the reminders and false encouragement that this world has to give.

So, I ask again: How’s your time in God’s Word right now? Are you just going through the motions, or are you sticking with it, reading it again and again until you hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit as He illuminates the truth for your heart and mind? I encourage you to pay close attention this week. I can’t guarantee you’ll like what you see, but I can guarantee you’ll be better for it!